People Who Live Alone Talk Too Much

“Sofi Stambo’s wondrous, unpredictable and extraordinarily perceptive humor lights up these pages, and occasionally even sets them on fire. People Who Live Alone Talk Too Much is a superb investigation into the contrary, bemusing, feral and fearsome facets of our shared human character.”

— Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

“Sofi Stambo's People Who Live Alone Talk Too Much made my heart quicken. Her stories take the reader to the cusp of everything—heartbreak, hilarity, loss, rediscovery, and a deep sense of longing for that thing we call home. And I completely fell for Stambo's half-real, half-surreal characters, who are also animals, reminding us that our mammalian past is filled with frolic and hope even in the dark. I'm smitten.”

— Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan and Thrust

“What a beautifully unnerving, supremely accomplished and altogether exhilarating collection. Stambo slays.”

— Junot Díaz, author of This is How You Lose Her

“I can't remember the last time I read a debut collection with such excitement. This is a thrilling book: hilarious, surreal, humane, startlingly wise. Sofi Stambo is a brilliant new voice, exhilaratingly original.”

— Garth Greenwell, author of Small Rain and What Belongs to You

“Sofi Stambo is an incredible writer—sly and intelligent, compassionate and sharp—who brilliantly straddles the line between comedy and despair sentence by sentence, story by story. People Who Live Alone Talk Too Much is a gorgeous collection that manages to be both historically rich and timeless, as well as a deft exploration of what home means when one's homeland, Bulgaria in this case, has changed so much and so often. A stunning and important new book by a writer with talent in spades.”

— Molly Antopol, author of The Unamericans

“Stambo’s direct and unadorned writing, her pithy, sometimes stinging observations, make her a particularly convincing storyteller. Impressive, too, is her comedic timing, often lightening—without dismissing—heavier realities.’”

— Terry Hong, Shelf Awareness

“Sofi Stambo’s prose is effervescent and her humor razor sharp, but it’s her empathy that won my heart. From Bulgarian beaches to city diners, these slice-of-life stories follow characters both heady with hope and noble in defeat, shaping a collection that’s ultimately an ode to the strange wonder of being alive.”

— Priyanka Champaneri, author of The City of Good Death